Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C
57]

Generally, a divine mandate that church members were expected to obey; more specifically, a text dictated by JS in the first-person voice of Deity that served to communicate knowledge and instruction to JS and his followers. Occasionally, other inspired texts...

Located twelve miles from western Missouri border. Permanently settled, platted, and designated county seat, 1827. Hub for steamboat travel on Missouri River. Point of departure for Santa Fe Trail. Population in 1831 about 300. Mormon population by summer...

27 Aug. 1793–27 May 1840. Hatter. Born at Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Son of William Partridge and Jemima Bidwell. Moved to Painesville, Geauga Co., Ohio. Married Lydia Clisbee, 22 Aug. 1819, at Painesville. Initially a Universal Restorationist...

28 Dec. 1789–29 June 1834. Merchant. Born at New Haven, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Son of Eli Gilbert and Lydia Hemingway. Moved to Huntington, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; to Monroe, Monroe Co., Michigan Territory, by Sept. 1818; to Painesville, Geauga Co...

This heading likely did not appear in
the original manuscript; John Whitmer likely added it when he copied the revelation
into Revelation Book
1. It is not included in other manuscript copies of the revelation. At some
point, Whitmer added “Not to be printed at present” to the copy in Revelation Book
1, and the revelation was not printed until the 1835
edition of the Doctrine
and Covenants. (Revelation Book 1, p.
93; Gilbert, Notebook, [34]; Revelation Book 2,
p.
89 [D&C 57]; Doctrine and Covenants 27, 1835 ed.)

A male leader in the church generally; an ecclesiastical and priesthood office or one holding that office; a proselytizing missionary. The Book of Mormon explained that elders ordained priests and teachers and administered “the flesh and blood of Christ unto...

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

, saith the Lord your God,
Who have assembelled yourselves together, according to my commandment in
this land which is the land of Missorie

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Mormon missionaries...

As directed by early revelations, church members “gathered” in communities. A revelation dated September 1830, for instance, instructed elders “to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect” who would “be gathered in unto one place, upon the face of this land...

A September 1830
revelation
announced that Jesus Christ would “gether his People even as a hen gethereth her
Chickens under her wings.” It also appointed the elders “to bring to pass the
gethering of mine Elect.” (Revelation, Sept.
1830–A [D&C 29:1–2, 7].)

See
Hebrews 11:9; see also Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 9 [1 Nephi 2:20]. A January 1831
revelation stated
that God would lead church members to “a land of promise.” Later that month, Sidney
Rigdon was reported to have proclaimed that the “land of promise” extended
from Ohio to the
Pacific Ocean. (Revelation, 2 Jan. 1831
[D&C 38:18]; Waterloo, NY, 26
Jan. [1831], Letter to the Editor, Reflector [Palmyra, NY], 1 Feb.
1831, 95; see also Howe,
Mormonism Unvailed, 110–111.)

Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That
Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches
of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the
Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries
into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One
Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been
Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.

Also referred to as New Jerusalem. JS revelation, dated Sept. 1830, prophesied that “city of Zion” would be built among Lamanites (American Indians). JS directed Oliver Cowdery and other missionaries preaching among American Indians in Missouri to find location...

. yea thus saith the Lord your God, If ye will receive wisdom here is
wisdom. Behold the place which is now called Independence

Located twelve miles from western Missouri border. Permanently settled, platted, and designated county seat, 1827. Hub for steamboat travel on Missouri River. Point of departure for Santa Fe Trail. Population in 1831 about 300. Mormon population by summer...

JS revelation, dated 20 July 1831, directed temple to be built short distance west of courthouse on hill just outside of Independence, Missouri. JS directed dedication of temple site by Sidney Rigdon, 3 Aug. 1831. On same date, church claimed site for eventual...

Independence became county seat for Jackson Co., 29 Mar. 1827. First courthouse, single-story log structure located on lot 59 at intersection of Lynn and Lexington Streets, completed, Aug. 1828. Second courthouse, two-story brick structure located at center...

This courthouse was an almost-completed brick structure built in the center of
Independence’s
public square. The public square, on which the town of Independence was centered,
was situated on the highest point of the gentle-sloped bluffs on the southern side
of the Missouri
River between the Blue and Little
Blue rivers. (Parkin, “Courthouse Mentioned in the Revelation on Zion,” 451–456; U.S. Department of the Interior,
Geological Survey Topographic Map: Missouri, Independence,
Quadrangle, 7.5 Minute Series, 1996.)

Wherefore it is
wisdom that the land should be purchased by the saints6

The spot for the temple was on a western promontory of the same bluff as the courthouse but outside the town’s boundaries. Ezra Booth,
who arrived in Missouri shortly after JS, wrote that the temple spot was “one half of a
mile out of the Town” on “a rise of ground, a short distance south of the road.” The
spot was marked at this time during JS’s stay in Missouri, and by the end of the year Bishop
Edward
Partridge purchased a parcel of land including the spot. (Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. VI,”
Ohio Star [Ravenna], 17 Nov. 1831, [3]; see also Richard P. Howard, “The Spot for the
Temple,” Saints’ Herald, June 1987, 9–10; and Romig, Early Independence,
Missouri, 15–18.)

& also every tract lying
westward even unto the line runing directly betwen Jew & gentile

Those who were not members of the House of Israel. More specifically, members of the church identified gentiles as those whose lineage was not of the Jews or Lamanites (understood to be the American Indians in JS’s day). Certain prophecies indicated that ...

This apparently refers to the border between Missouri and land
to the west occupied by American Indians. An earlier revelation referred to
this boundary as “the borders of the Lamanites.”a Both the
Book of Mormon
and JS’s revelations sometimes identified the “Lamanites” (the name by which JS
and his followers referred to American Indians) as Jews.b
The Book of Mormon also refers to those Europeans who would colonize the Americas as
“gentiles,” as do some of JS’s revelations.c
Prophecies in the Book of Mormon stated that, in the last days, those Gentiles who
accepted the “fulness of the gospel” would be “numbered” with the “remnant of
Jacob”—believed by the Saints at that time to be the American Indians—and would help
them build the New Jerusalem. The Book of Mormon also taught that the New Jerusalem
“should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph.”d

Likely a reference to the land west of Missouri. Early church member Elizabeth
Godkin Marsh reported that those who went with JS to
Missouri said that “a little beyond Jackson Co[unty] . . . there is one continued
prairies to the rocky and shining Mountain.” Likewise, gazetteers portrayed the
Indian lands—especially those bordering Missouri—as “fertile prairie land.” The
commandment to purchase additional tracts “bordering by the Prairies” apparently
meant to purchase not only a strip of land between the temple lot and the
border between Jackson County and the Indian lands but additional land along the
border. (Elizabeth Godkin Marsh,
Kirtland Mills, OH, to Lewis Abbott and Ann Abbott, East Sudbury, MA, Sept.
[1831], Abbott Family Collection, CHL; Baldwin and Thomas, New and Complete
Gazetteer of the United States, 522; Goodrich, World as It Is,
125.)

Baldwin, Thomas, and J. Thomas. A New and Complete Gazetteer of the
United States; Giving a Full and Comprehensive Review of the Present Condition,
Industry, and Resources of the American Confederacy. . . . Philadelphia:
Lippincott, Grambo and Co., 1854.

Goodrich, S. G. The World as It Is, and as It Has Been; or, A
Comprehensive Geography and History, Ancient and Modern. New York: J. H.
Colton, 1855.

in as much as my Deciples are enabled to buy lands. Behold
this is wisdom that they may obtain it for an everlasting inheritance

Generally referred to land promised by or received from God for the church and its members. A January 1831 revelation promised church members a land of inheritance. In March and May 1831, JS dictated revelations commanding members “to purchase lands for an...

28 Dec. 1789–29 June 1834. Merchant. Born at New Haven, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Son of Eli Gilbert and Lydia Hemingway. Moved to Huntington, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; to Monroe, Monroe Co., Michigan Territory, by Sept. 1818; to Painesville, Geauga Co...

stand in the office which I
have appointed to receive moneys to be an agent unto the church to buy lands in
all the regions round about in as much as can be in righteousness, & as
wisdom shall direct.9

27 Aug. 1793–27 May 1840. Hatter. Born at Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Son of William Partridge and Jemima Bidwell. Moved to Painesville, Geauga Co., Ohio. Married Lydia Clisbee, 22 Aug. 1819, at Painesville. Initially a Universal Restorationist...

Missing
text supplied from versions of this revelation in Gilbert, Notebook, [35]; and Revelation Book
2, p. 90. Whitmer also later added
“divide” to the manuscript in Revelation Book 1. (Revelation Book 1, p.
93.)

28 Dec. 1789–29 June 1834. Merchant. Born at New Haven, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Son of Eli Gilbert and Lydia Hemingway. Moved to Huntington, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; to Monroe, Monroe Co., Michigan Territory, by Sept. 1818; to Painesville, Geauga Co...

Generally, a divine mandate that church members were expected to obey; more specifically, a text dictated by JS in the first-person voice of Deity that served to communicate knowledge and instruction to JS and his followers. Occasionally, other inspired texts...

Located twelve miles from western Missouri border. Permanently settled, platted, and designated county seat, 1827. Hub for steamboat travel on Missouri River. Point of departure for Santa Fe Trail. Population in 1831 about 300. Mormon population by summer...

27 Aug. 1793–27 May 1840. Hatter. Born at Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Son of William Partridge and Jemima Bidwell. Moved to Painesville, Geauga Co., Ohio. Married Lydia Clisbee, 22 Aug. 1819, at Painesville. Initially a Universal Restorationist...

28 Dec. 1789–29 June 1834. Merchant. Born at New Haven, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Son of Eli Gilbert and Lydia Hemingway. Moved to Huntington, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; to Monroe, Monroe Co., Michigan Territory, by Sept. 1818; to Painesville, Geauga Co...

This heading likely did not appear in
the original manuscript; John Whitmer likely added it when he copied the revelation
into Revelation Book
1. It is not included in other manuscript copies of the revelation. At some
point, Whitmer added “Not to be printed at present” to the copy in Revelation Book
1, and the revelation was not printed until the 1835
edition of the Doctrine
and Covenants. (Revelation Book 1, p.
93; Gilbert, Notebook, [34]; Revelation Book 2,
p.
89 [D&C 57]; Doctrine and Covenants 27, 1835 ed.)

A male leader in the church generally; an ecclesiastical and priesthood office or one holding that office; a proselytizing missionary. The Book of Mormon explained that elders ordained priests and teachers and administered “the flesh and blood of Christ unto...

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

, saith the Lord your God,
Who have assembelled yourselves together, according to my commandment in
this land which is the land of Missorie

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Mormon missionaries...

As directed by early revelations, church members “gathered” in communities. A revelation dated September 1830, for instance, instructed elders “to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect” who would “be gathered in unto one place, upon the face of this land...

A September 1830
revelation
announced that Jesus Christ would “gether his People even as a hen gethereth her
Chickens under her wings.” It also appointed the elders “to bring to pass the
gethering of mine Elect.” (Revelation, Sept.
1830–A [D&C 29:1–2, 7].)

See
Hebrews 11:9; see also Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 9 [1 Nephi 2:20]. A January 1831
revelation stated
that God would lead church members to “a land of promise.” Later that month, Sidney
Rigdon was reported to have proclaimed that the “land of promise” extended
from Ohio to the
Pacific Ocean. (Revelation, 2 Jan. 1831
[D&C 38:18]; Waterloo, NY, 26
Jan. [1831], Letter to the Editor, Reflector [Palmyra, NY], 1 Feb.
1831, 95; see also Howe,
Mormonism Unvailed, 110–111.)

Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That
Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches
of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the
Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries
into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One
Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been
Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.

Also referred to as New Jerusalem. JS revelation, dated Sept. 1830, prophesied that “city of Zion” would be built among Lamanites (American Indians). JS directed Oliver Cowdery and other missionaries preaching among American Indians in Missouri to find location...

. yea thus saith the Lord your God, If ye will receive wisdom here is
wisdom. Behold the place which is now called Independence

Located twelve miles from western Missouri border. Permanently settled, platted, and designated county seat, 1827. Hub for steamboat travel on Missouri River. Point of departure for Santa Fe Trail. Population in 1831 about 300. Mormon population by summer...

JS revelation, dated 20 July 1831, directed temple to be built short distance west of courthouse on hill just outside of Independence, Missouri. JS directed dedication of temple site by Sidney Rigdon, 3 Aug. 1831. On same date, church claimed site for eventual...

Independence became county seat for Jackson Co., 29 Mar. 1827. First courthouse, single-story log structure located on lot 59 at intersection of Lynn and Lexington Streets, completed, Aug. 1828. Second courthouse, two-story brick structure located at center...

This courthouse was an almost-completed brick structure built in the center of
Independence’s
public square. The public square, on which the town of Independence was centered,
was situated on the highest point of the gentle-sloped bluffs on the southern side
of the Missouri
River between the Blue and Little
Blue rivers. (Parkin, “Courthouse Mentioned in the Revelation on Zion,” 451–456; U.S. Department of the Interior,
Geological Survey Topographic Map: Missouri, Independence,
Quadrangle, 7.5 Minute Series, 1996.)

Wherefore it is
wisdom that the land should be purchased by the saints6

The spot for the temple was on a western promontory of the same bluff as the courthouse but outside the town’s boundaries. Ezra Booth,
who arrived in Missouri shortly after JS, wrote that the temple spot was “one half of a
mile out of the Town” on “a rise of ground, a short distance south of the road.” The
spot was marked at this time during JS’s stay in Missouri, and by the end of the year Bishop
Edward
Partridge purchased a parcel of land including the spot. (Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. VI,”
Ohio Star [Ravenna], 17 Nov. 1831, [3]; see also Richard P. Howard, “The Spot for the
Temple,” Saints’ Herald, June 1987, 9–10; and Romig, Early Independence,
Missouri, 15–18.)

& also every tract lying
westward even unto the line runing directly betwen Jew & gentile

Those who were not members of the House of Israel. More specifically, members of the church identified gentiles as those whose lineage was not of the Jews or Lamanites (understood to be the American Indians in JS’s day). Certain prophecies indicated that ...

This apparently refers to the border between Missouri and land
to the west occupied by American Indians. An earlier revelation referred to
this boundary as “the borders of the Lamanites.”a Both the
Book of Mormon
and JS’s revelations sometimes identified the “Lamanites” (the name by which JS
and his followers referred to American Indians) as Jews.b
The Book of Mormon also refers to those Europeans who would colonize the Americas as
“gentiles,” as do some of JS’s revelations.c
Prophecies in the Book of Mormon stated that, in the last days, those Gentiles who
accepted the “fulness of the gospel” would be “numbered” with the “remnant of
Jacob”—believed by the Saints at that time to be the American Indians—and would help
them build the New Jerusalem. The Book of Mormon also taught that the New Jerusalem
“should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph.”d

Likely a reference to the land west of Missouri. Early church member Elizabeth
Godkin Marsh reported that those who went with JS to
Missouri said that “a little beyond Jackson Co[unty] . . . there is one continued
prairies to the rocky and shining Mountain.” Likewise, gazetteers portrayed the
Indian lands—especially those bordering Missouri—as “fertile prairie land.” The
commandment to purchase additional tracts “bordering by the Prairies” apparently
meant to purchase not only a strip of land between the temple lot and the
border between Jackson County and the Indian lands but additional land along the
border. (Elizabeth Godkin Marsh,
Kirtland Mills, OH, to Lewis Abbott and Ann Abbott, East Sudbury, MA, Sept.
[1831], Abbott Family Collection, CHL; Baldwin and Thomas, New and Complete
Gazetteer of the United States, 522; Goodrich, World as It Is,
125.)

Baldwin, Thomas, and J. Thomas. A New and Complete Gazetteer of the
United States; Giving a Full and Comprehensive Review of the Present Condition,
Industry, and Resources of the American Confederacy. . . . Philadelphia:
Lippincott, Grambo and Co., 1854.

Goodrich, S. G. The World as It Is, and as It Has Been; or, A
Comprehensive Geography and History, Ancient and Modern. New York: J. H.
Colton, 1855.

in as much as my Deciples are enabled to buy lands. Behold
this is wisdom that they may obtain it for an everlasting inheritance

Generally referred to land promised by or received from God for the church and its members. A January 1831 revelation promised church members a land of inheritance. In March and May 1831, JS dictated revelations commanding members “to purchase lands for an...

28 Dec. 1789–29 June 1834. Merchant. Born at New Haven, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Son of Eli Gilbert and Lydia Hemingway. Moved to Huntington, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; to Monroe, Monroe Co., Michigan Territory, by Sept. 1818; to Painesville, Geauga Co...

stand in the office which I
have appointed to receive moneys to be an agent unto the church to buy lands in
all the regions round about in as much as can be in righteousness, & as
wisdom shall direct.9

27 Aug. 1793–27 May 1840. Hatter. Born at Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Son of William Partridge and Jemima Bidwell. Moved to Painesville, Geauga Co., Ohio. Married Lydia Clisbee, 22 Aug. 1819, at Painesville. Initially a Universal Restorationist...

Missing
text supplied from versions of this revelation in Gilbert, Notebook, [35]; and Revelation Book
2, p. 90. Whitmer also later added
“divide” to the manuscript in Revelation Book 1. (Revelation Book 1, p.
93.)

28 Dec. 1789–29 June 1834. Merchant. Born at New Haven, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Son of Eli Gilbert and Lydia Hemingway. Moved to Huntington, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; to Monroe, Monroe Co., Michigan Territory, by Sept. 1818; to Painesville, Geauga Co...

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Mormon missionaries...

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

Located twelve miles from western Missouri border. Permanently settled, platted, and designated county seat, 1827. Hub for steamboat travel on Missouri River. Point of departure for Santa Fe Trail. Population in 1831 about 300. Mormon population by summer...

After arriving in Independence, JS dictated this revelation
on 20 July 1831 identifying “the land of
Missorie” as the “land of promise.” John Whitmer

27 Aug. 1802–11 July 1878. Farmer, stock raiser, newspaper editor. Born in Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Member of German Reformed Church, Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, most likely in Seneca...

18 May 1783–10 July 1875. Farmer. Born at Easton, Albany Co., New York. Son of Nathan Harris and Rhoda Lapham. Moved with parents to area of Swift’s landing (later in Palmyra), Ontario Co., New York, 1793. Married first his first cousin Lucy Harris, 27 Mar...

27 Aug. 1793–27 May 1840. Hatter. Born at Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Son of William Partridge and Jemima Bidwell. Moved to Painesville, Geauga Co., Ohio. Married Lydia Clisbee, 22 Aug. 1819, at Painesville. Initially a Universal Restorationist...

3 Oct. 1806–3 Mar. 1850. Clerk, teacher, justice of the peace, lawyer, newspaper editor. Born at Wells, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of William Cowdery and Rebecca Fuller. Raised Congregationalist. Moved to western New York and clerked at a store, ca. 1825–1828...

Ca. 1810–1849. Teacher, farmer, law officer. Born in New York. Lived in Macedon, Wayne Co., New York, ca. 1830. Baptized into LDS church. Ordained an elder, by 9 June 1830. Served mission to Ohio and Missouri, 1830–1831. Stripped of office of elder, Aug. ...

27 Sept. 1809–22 Sept. 1836. Tailor. Born at Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, in Seneca Lake, Seneca Co. One of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, June 1829. Among six...

, who had reached Missouri by January 1831 to proselytize among the American
Indians living just west of the Missouri state line.5

See Covenant of Oliver
Cowdery and Others, 17 Oct. 1830;
Letter from Oliver
Cowdery, 8 Apr. 1831; Knight, Reminiscences, 9; and
Jennings, “First Mormon
Mission to the Indians,” 288–299. A 29 January
1831 letter from Cowdery states that they had arrived “a few days
since.” Peter Whitmer Jr.’s later account, however, says the group arrived on
13 December 1830. Accounting for the travel
time to Independence in
the winter, it is highly unlikely that the group, which left Kirtland
by 22 November, could have arrived in mid-December, which suggests
that Cowdery’s contemporary account is more accurate. (Oliver Cowdery,
Independence, MO, to the Church in Ohio, 29 Jan. 1831, in Letter to Hyrum Smith, 3–4
Mar. 1831; Whitmer, Journal, Dec. 1831, [1]; Givens and Grow, Apostle
Paul of Mormonism, 42; see also Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. VII,” Ohio
Star [Ravenna], 24 Nov. 1831, [1].)

Some of the others
assigned by the 6 June
revelation to
travel to Missouri arrived later in the month—apparently after the dictation of the
20 July revelation.6

Rigdon and Sidney and Elizabeth Van Benthusen Gilbert, for
example, had decided to go by water from St. Louis to
Independence,
rather than overland, which delayed their arrival. (JS History, vol. A-1, 126–127.)

According to the history JS
initiated in 1838, JS spent time upon his arrival in
Independence

Located twelve miles from western Missouri border. Permanently settled, platted, and designated county seat, 1827. Hub for steamboat travel on Missouri River. Point of departure for Santa Fe Trail. Population in 1831 about 300. Mormon population by summer...

ruminating on the situation of the American Indians living in the “wilderness”
across the border. Perhaps because an earlier revelation explained
that the city of Zion was to be built “among the Lamanites,”7

Revelation, Sept.
1830–B [D&C 28:9]. Early church
members sometimes referred to American Indians as “Lamanites.” The history of the
people called the Lamanites is told in the Book of Mormon.

these meditations prompted him to ask questions
about when and where the city would be built: “When will the wilderness blossom as
the rose; when will Zion be built up in her glory, and where will thy Temple stand
unto which all nations shall come in the last days?”8

In another account, JS remembered “viewing the country”
before “seeking diligently at the hand of God”; according to that account, God
“manifested himself unto me, and designated to me and others, the very spot upon
which he designed to commence the work of the gathering, and the upbuilding of an
holy city, which should be called Zion.”9

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Mormon missionaries...

Located twelve miles from western Missouri border. Permanently settled, platted, and designated county seat, 1827. Hub for steamboat travel on Missouri River. Point of departure for Santa Fe Trail. Population in 1831 about 300. Mormon population by summer...

Also referred to as New Jerusalem. JS revelation, dated Sept. 1830, prophesied that “city of Zion” would be built among Lamanites (American Indians). JS directed Oliver Cowdery and other missionaries preaching among American Indians in Missouri to find location...

JS revelation, dated 20 July 1831, directed temple to be built short distance west of courthouse on hill just outside of Independence, Missouri. JS directed dedication of temple site by Sidney Rigdon, 3 Aug. 1831. On same date, church claimed site for eventual...

When embarking on his mission to
preach to the Indians, Cowdery promised “to rear up a pillar as a witness
where the Temple of God shall be built, in the glorious New-Jerusalem.” But it was
this 20 July revelation that gave the first
clear designation of the temple’s location.
(Covenant of Oliver
Cowdery and Others, 17 Oct.
1830.)

27 Aug. 1793–27 May 1840. Hatter. Born at Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Son of William Partridge and Jemima Bidwell. Moved to Painesville, Geauga Co., Ohio. Married Lydia Clisbee, 22 Aug. 1819, at Painesville. Initially a Universal Restorationist...

An ecclesiastical and priesthood office. JS appointed Edward Partridge as the first bishop in February 1831. Following this appointment, Partridge functioned as the local leader of the church in Missouri. Later revelations described a bishop’s duties as receiving...

28 Dec. 1789–29 June 1834. Merchant. Born at New Haven, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Son of Eli Gilbert and Lydia Hemingway. Moved to Huntington, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; to Monroe, Monroe Co., Michigan Territory, by Sept. 1818; to Painesville, Geauga Co...

The original manuscript of this
revelation is not extant. John Whitmer

27 Aug. 1802–11 July 1878. Farmer, stock raiser, newspaper editor. Born in Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Member of German Reformed Church, Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, most likely in Seneca...

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Mormon missionaries...

French explored area, 1669. British took possession following French and Indian War, 1763. Ceded to U.S., 1783. First permanent white settlement established, 1788. Northeastern portion maintained as part of Connecticut, 1786, and called Connecticut Western...

27 Aug. 1793–27 May 1840. Hatter. Born at Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Son of William Partridge and Jemima Bidwell. Moved to Painesville, Geauga Co., Ohio. Married Lydia Clisbee, 22 Aug. 1819, at Painesville. Initially a Universal Restorationist...

Located twelve miles from western Missouri border. Permanently settled, platted, and designated county seat, 1827. Hub for steamboat travel on Missouri River. Point of departure for Santa Fe Trail. Population in 1831 about 300. Mormon population by summer...

27 Aug. 1802–11 July 1878. Farmer, stock raiser, newspaper editor. Born in Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Member of German Reformed Church, Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, most likely in Seneca...